Even though he only played half of 2023, he accrued 2.9 WAR on 131 OPS+. Extrapolated over a full season, just a mere ~6 WAR. So it begs the question, is he eligible for Viagra’s top honor?
His baseline, which will be from his “down” year from 2023, is still in the 93%ile of the AL. If he plays a full season and earns a very reasonable (to him) 6-7 WAR, that’s relatively meh. An injured all-star caliber player who sat out 2023 could easily exceed that WAR differential (and have a better storyline), yet have a comparatively worse season than Trout.
For reference, Bellinger won with a +2.3 WAR. Verlander had a +6 WAR when he returned.
Or another way to look at it, if Trout reissues his classic form, he could put up 8-9 WAR and bag both CPotY and MVP (a first in baseball, I believe).
I have friends who don’t even think he should be put up for contention. He’s still really good, the premise being CPotY is for players who lost a season recovering from injury, or had uncharacteristically horrible seasons (weak case for both on Trout).
And on the singular pedestal on which The Weatherman is perched, he would have to put up (another) historic season. Which (in regards to this particular accolade) is unfair to him.
![[Michael Huntley] Angels manager Ron Washington on the trade deadline: “No matter who we have left, we will have O’Hoppe, Neto, Schanuel, Moniak. That core is going to be here. Mike (Trout), Rendon are going to be here and we are going to perform with whatever we have.” @SportingTrib #Angels](https://haloshub.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/minilogo.png "[Michael Huntley] Angels manager Ron Washington on the trade deadline: “No matter who we have left, we will have O’Hoppe, Neto, Schanuel, Moniak. That core is going to be here. Mike (Trout), Rendon are going to be here and we are going to perform with whatever we have.” @SportingTrib #Angels")